DOCSLIB.ORG

Kabbalistic Healing

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Kabbalistic Healing Kabbalistic Healing Dr. Simon Dein Introduction The term Kabbalah has been used since the eleventh century to refer to a diffuse tradition of Jewish mystical thought said to be hidden in religious law received from the remote past, perhaps even given to Adam before the Fall. One of the most popular texts is of Zohar edited in the thirteenth century by Moses de Leon (died 1305). His ideas were elaborated by Isaac Luria (1543-1572) in Palestine. The Zohar explores the inner workings of the Divine and his relationship to mankind. It examines the nature of the Godhead; the expected coming of the Messiah and the future redemption. God (En Sof) himself without qualities or attributes made existence perceptible by projecting ten successive channels of light, the Sefirot, to serve as media for his manifestations in the finite. These are the ten divine structures that bring the world into being through emanation and make up different levels of reality. Primordial man, Adam Kadmon, is a reflection of the Sefirot ‘we were formed after the supernal pattern, each limb corresponding to something in the scheme of wisdom’ (Zohar 2:212). THE SEFIROT 1 According to Kabbalah, man and cosmos are inextricably linked. Disorder in the cosmos influences the physical, mental and spiritual health of mankind. By the performance of good deeds (mitzvot) cosmic disorder will be eliminated and so too physical and emotional suffering. Here I examine three aspects of Kabbalah and healing: psychoanalysis and Kabbalah; the healing ‘power’ of religious language in Hasidism and the contemporary revival of Kabbalah through the Kabbalah Centre. Psychoanalysis and Kabbalah David Bakan (1963) in Sigmund Freud and Jewish Mystical Tradition presents a cogent discussion of the relationship between psychoanalysis and Kabbalah. He argues that Freud consciously or unconsciously secularised Jewish mysticism; psychoanalysis can be viewed as a form of secularisation of Kabbalah. Although the influence of Kabbalah on Freud’s psychoanalytic writings is contentious, it does appear that Freud was exposed to Kabbalistic ideas early on in life (Dein 2006). Freud’s methods, particularly free association, are similar to those developed by the early Kabbalists, especially the thirteenth century Spanish Kabbalist Rabbi Abraham Abulafia, who strove to ‘unseal the soul, to unite the knots which bind it,’ hence developing a theory of repression and a way of dealing with it six centuries before Freud. Abulafia described a form of free association he called ‘skipping and jumping’ which involves according to Scholem (1955): ‘a very remarkable method of using association as a way of mediation… a way of mediation… every jump opens a new sphere… within this sphere, the mind may freely associate, the jumping unites, therefore, elements are free and guided association and is said to ensure quite extraordinary results as far as the widening of the consciousness of the initiate concerned. The jumping brings to light hidden processes of the mind’. Like psychoanalysis, which attempts to reveal the hidden recesses of the mind, Kabbalah attempts to understand the hidden depth of Torah. The Torah can be read at different levels. The deepest level is the mystical level, which Kabbalah will help us to understand. Just as psychoanalysts attempt to delve into the subconscious, so too, Kabbalists attempt to delve and understand the deepest levels of the Torah. There are similarities between Kleinian thinking about ‘containment’ or ‘holding’ and the Kabbalistic idea of shevirath ha-kelim, the breaking of the vessels. According the great Kabbalahist, Rabbi Isaac Luria, when God created the world he drew his light into a single point, a process which is referred to as tzimtsum. In a vacuum left by the original contraction light continued to pour in. It was necessary to contain this in a vessel. However, the vessel shattered resulting in shards or fragments containing seeds of the original light. The fragments with the embedded light are known as Klippot and are responsible for the existence of 2 evil. The whole point of existence is to free the light trapped in the vessels, undo this exile and re-establish God’s unity. What is the relationship between this process and Melanie Klein’s ideas? For Klein, when a child is born, the unity between the child and his mother is broken. The child cannot contain the primary impulse which Klein recognises as both life impulse and death impulse (Freud’s Eros and Thanatos). For Klein the child needs to contain these impulses to protect himself from terrible internal tension. To do this he splits or shatters his mind and projects large parts of himself outwards into others. The outer world becomes full of bad persecuting bits and pieces. To deal with the emptiness he may take back or introject many of the bad bits. The Kabbalistic process of disintegration is repaired by establishing a relationship with God. In the same light, for Klein the child can be a functioning container of his own impulses and life forces by re-establishing a close relationship with those who love and care for him. A strong containing function is the requisite for order. Hasidism, Language and Healing Hebrew Language in the Kabbalah has a metaphysical reality of its own. Words are more than descriptive, they are an integral part of the reality they describe. The letters mediate between the Sefirotic world and the material one. Language in the Kabbalah has a metaphysical reality of its own. Hasidim have incorporated Kabbalistic ideas into their religious texts. The Hasidim, or ‘pious ones’ in Hebrew, belong to a special movement within Orthodox Judaism, a movement that in the first half of the nineteenth century, claimed the allegiance of millions in Eastern and Central Europe - perhaps a majority of East European Jews. Lubavitch is a world wide movement of Hasidic Jews centred in New York where its leader, the seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe, resided until his death in June 1994. For the past twenty years I have been researching their understandings of healing (Dein 2002). The Lubavitch Rebbe 3 The Lubavitch mystical text called Tanya is the philosophical work which emphasises a close the relationship between the Hebrew alphabet and the physical world: language is regarded as instrumental in the process of the creation of the world and is an actual component of reality. Lubavitchers maintain that the manipulation of the Hebrew language can bring about changes in the physical world − a form of Kabbalistic magic. Misspelling of a Hebrew word in a religious text can, so they hold, result in physical sickness. Repairing this aberration can result in physical healing. At times of sickness, Lubavitchers would typically write to their spiritual leader or Rebbe – Menachem Schneerson − for healing. He would respond by asking them to check their Mezuzot, a metal casing placed at the right hand doorposts of every room containing a parchment with Hebrew prayers written on them. Typically they would find some aberration in the writing on the parchment which reflects some disorder in their physical body. One such typical story: Mr Cohen, a 60 year old member of Lubavitch, developed angina due to blockage of his coronary arteries. Distressed by the pain which was not alleviated by medication, he wrote to the Lubavitch Rebbe. The Rebbe told him on three occasions to check his mezuzot. Finally, after sending the parchment to a scribe, it was found that the Hebrew word lev (heart) was scratched. Once the parchment was replaced his heart pain disappeared. Mr Cohen attributed his improvement in health to a close relationship between the Hebrew word lev (heart) and his physical heart. Contemporary Kabbalah : The Kabbalah Centre In the last twenty years, there has been a revival of interest in Kabbalah appealing largely to a secular audience. The Kabbalah Centre is a not-for-profit spiritual organisation with headquarters in Los Angeles that provides courses on Kabbalah on-line, and through its local centres. Its founder Philip Berg, and his wife Karen Berg, devised a unique and friendly user system accessible to anyone explaining Kabbalistic principles. Courses are open to Jews and non Jews. The Centre has attracted considerable opposition from Orthodox Jews who consider Berg’s teachings inauthentic and assert that mystical principles should only be taught to religious Jews. According to Berg, all widely held spiritual religious beliefs systems are merely specific branches of a universal wisdom. The Bible is not to be taken literally, but rather as a code and it can only be understood in this context. Kabbalah provides the means of understanding this code. The five senses provide access to a mere one percent of reality. By studying Kabbalah, one can understand the other 99% of reality, thus gaining knowledge of the ‘truth’. Berg emphasises the use of astrology to understand the nature of cosmic forces. Much of his teaching focuses on sexuality and the role of sexual union in the re-harmonisation of the universe (Berg 2006). 4 The Kabbalah Centre has attracted a number of high profile followers such as Madonna and Lindsay Lohan, who maintain that Kabbalistic ideas have completely revolutionised their lives. The centre has attracted a lot of controversy on account of its claims of cures for cancer: spring water sold by the group was held to have amongst its effects a curative effect on cancer. Reputedly, bottles were sold to cancer suffers for hundreds of pounds. The Kabbalah Centre sells copies of its sacred texts such as the Zohar which are similarly held to possess healing powers. Among the best-selling items is the red string bracelet, said to protect the wearer from the ‘evil eye’. References Bakan D (1963) Sigmund Freud and the Jewish Mystical Tradition. New York: Schocken Books.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Happiness Erev Rosh Hashanah 2018 Rabbi Nancy Rita Myers Final
    1 Happiness Erev Rosh Hashanah 2018 Rabbi Nancy Rita Myers Final Woody Allen once said, “There's an old joke about two elderly women who are at a Catskill mountain resort, and one of 'em says, "Boy, the food at this place is really terrible." The other one says, "Yeah, I know; and such small portions." Allen adds, “Well, that's essentially how I feel about life - full of loneliness, and misery, and suffering, and unhappiness, and it's all over much too quickly.”1 I don’t know if you concur with Woody Allen or not. I hope that you don’t feel that your life is full of loneliness, misery, and suffering because we all seek joy, peace, wellbeing, in essence, we want to be happy. The word happiness is bantered around often. We ask others if they are happy and we struggle with how we feel about ourselves and our place in life. Are you happy? Such a simple question. Are you happy? How many of you need to think about that or unsure? We often recognize times when we think we are happy. For some of us, its cheering our favorite sports team to victory, watching a comedy, eating a piece of rich chocolate cake, playing in the sand, hiking a mountain, sipping some wine, or watching a favorite TV show. But are we truly happy in such moments? It’s easy to confuse momentary pleasure with long term happiness or satisfaction. We may get an initial rush out of the purchase of an electronic devise or an outfit but it’s temporary.
    [Show full text]
  • Moses Hayim Luzzatto's Quest for Providence
    City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 10-2014 'Like Iron to a Magnet': Moses Hayim Luzzatto's Quest for Providence David Sclar Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/380 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] “Like Iron to a Magnet”: Moses Hayim Luzzatto’s Quest for Providence By David Sclar A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty in History in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The City University of New York 2014 © 2014 David Sclar All Rights Reserved This Manuscript has been read and accepted by the Graduate Faculty in History in satisfaction of the Dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Prof. Jane S. Gerber _______________ ____________________________________ Date Chair of the Examining Committee Prof. Helena Rosenblatt _______________ ____________________________________ Date Executive Officer Prof. Francesca Bregoli _______________________________________ Prof. Elisheva Carlebach ________________________________________ Prof. Robert Seltzer ________________________________________ Prof. David Sorkin ________________________________________ Supervisory Committee iii Abstract “Like Iron to a Magnet”: Moses Hayim Luzzatto’s Quest for Providence by David Sclar Advisor: Prof. Jane S. Gerber This dissertation is a biographical study of Moses Hayim Luzzatto (1707–1746 or 1747). It presents the social and religious context in which Luzzatto was variously celebrated as the leader of a kabbalistic-messianic confraternity in Padua, condemned as a deviant threat by rabbis in Venice and central and eastern Europe, and accepted by the Portuguese Jewish community after relocating to Amsterdam.
    [Show full text]
  • Late Aramaic: the Literary and Linguistic Context of the Zohar’, Was Conducted in the Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies at University College London
    As per the self-archiving policy of Brill Academic Publishers: the article below is the submitted version. The final version is published as ‘The Aramaic of the Zohar: The Status Quaestionis’, in L.O. Kahn (ed.), Jewish Languages in Historical Perspective (IJS Studies in Judaica; Leiden: Brill, 2018), pp. 9–38. The Aramaic of the Zohar: The Status Quaestionis1 Alinda Damsma Toward the end of the thirteenth century the Kabbalah in Spain reached its creative peak with the emergence of Sefer ha-Zohar, Judaism’s most important corpus of mystical texts.2 It is a 1 This is an extended version of the paper I presented at the ‘Jewish Languages’ conference at University College London (26–27 July 2016). I would like to thank the conference organisers, Dr Lily Kahn and Prof. Mark Geller, for their kind invitation as well as for the acceptance of my paper in this volume. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the conference ‘Zohar — East and West’ at Ben Gurion University, Beer Sheva, in conjunction with the Ben-Zvi Institute in Jerusalem (28–30 December 2015). It is a pleasure to thank my respective hosts and audiences. I am particularly indebted to Prof. Theodore Kwasman, Prof. Ronit Meroz, and Prof. Willem Smelik, for reading the draft of this paper and kindly offering their expertise. I bear sole responsibility, however, for any errors that this paper may contain. The Aramaic dialects referred to in this article are abbreviated as follows: JBA = Jewish Babylonian Aramaic. This dialect was used in Babylonia from about 200 CE until 900 CE (one of its sub-dialects is BTA= Babylonian Talmudic Aramaic, the main dialect employed in the Babylonian Talmud).
    [Show full text]
  • Yeshiva University AP Style Guide
    Yeshiva University Style Guide Members of Yeshiva University’s office of Marketing & Communications produces multi- media materials for distribution to employees, external media and multiple constituencies such as alumni, donors and community leaders. Marketing & Communications, and others in the University producing such materials, should adhere to journalistic style standards as outlined by The Associated Press (AP) in The Associated Press Stylebook with special attention given to the unique needs of universities—specifically those relating to our own Yeshiva University community. The following style guidelines specifically address branding consistency; quality; personality; tone; and key messages for Yeshiva University and may be exceptions to AP style that should be practiced in all mediums. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary is the preferred reference for English spelling and punctuation. It can be searched online (for free) at: www.merriam-webster.com. Academic Degrees Use the possessive (’s) for bachelor’s degree and master’s degree but not with associate degree. There is no possessive in Bachelor of Arts or Master of Science (note the use of upper case). When abbreviating degrees, do not use periods, e.g. BA, JD, PhD, LLM, but set multiples off by commas. Do not capitalize majors, programs, specializations or concentrations of study when they are not part of an official department name or title. (NOTE: the exception is for English and foreign languages). When referring to the conferral of a degree, do not include “doctoral” or the word “recipients” for multiple awards. Examples: She received a bachelor's degree in history; She majored in economics; He is a French major; Governor Cuomo received an honorary degree from Yeshiva University; Honorary degrees were awarded to Governor Cuomo and Elliot Gibber.
    [Show full text]
  • 02 Nothing but Light / 23-30
    once revealed itwiceconcealed twonothing but light THAT WAS QUITE enjoyable. It is pro- foundly pleasurable to reveal how two Torah ideas which, ostensibly, are unrelated, are in fact intimately connected to one another. Ya’akov Avinu first found his small jar of oil in 1435 BCE. He went back for it 34 years later. The Chashmonaim did not find THEIR jar of oil for another 1,263 years. The only question is, WHY are they connected? The truth is, the story did not begin with Ya’akov Avinu. It only went THROUGH him. Nothing But Light!!23 And, it is not about the oil. It is about what the oil represents. It is also not about the connec- tion between Ya’akov Avinu and the Chash- monaim. In the end, they are but two “pearls” on a strand that stretches all the way back to Creation and forward to Yemos HaMoshiach, and then some. It’s about light. It’s ALWAYS about light. Is there anything else? Long before there was “good” and “evil” there was the light, unimag- inably intense and unlimited light, predating EVERYTHING, except itself. We’re not talking about physical light. That’s a creation. Photons and waves may be imperceivable by the human eye, but they are nevertheless quite physical, in existence only since the beginning of Creation. The light we are talking about is COMPLETELY spiritual. It was NEVER created, only filtered and manip- ulated by God to execute His will. What was His will? As far as we know, to make Creation, and to make it in such a way as to allow a free will being to exist who could EARN a life of eternal pleasure.
    [Show full text]
  • Q&A: Red Strings
    Q&A: Red Strings written by Yossi Katz | November 26, 2010 Q: Good day! — I’ve just returned again from my offices in India and I have a question I’m hoping you can provide me an answer. I noticed that most people I came across in India had a red string tied to their wrist and when I asked a few people on my team the significance they told me it was something in regards to their native religion. This brings me to the most recent observation of the “red string.” — I remember reading once about a red string in Kabbalah and in fact a few years back there was some “commercial kabbala” fad that hollywood embraced and you’d see movie stars wearing a red string. Do you know anything about this? I seem to remember there is reference to a red string in Judaism connected to the site of Rebecca’s holy site but I could be mistaken. A: A *roita bindel* — red string — was often “prescribed” by concerned Jewish mothers and grandmothers in Eastern Europe to ward off the evil eye. It is quite common to find people circumscribe the matriarch RACHEL’s tomb with red string (seven times) and to then use that string, as above. Keep searching and may no harm befall you! kol tuv. Ozer Bergman As per Wikipedia: Some red string is brought from Israel. Sometimes, the string has been wound in large quantities around thetomb of the Hebrew Biblical matriarch Rachel, near Bethlehem. It is considered to have great powers of “good fortune” and grant added divine protection to those who wear it.
    [Show full text]
  • Shaar Hayichud the Gate of Unity by the Holy Rabbi Dov Ber of Lubavitch
    Shaar HaYichud The Gate of Unity By The Holy Rabbi Dov Ber of Lubavitch Translated and Annotated by Shimon Markel Edited by Rabbi A. Markel Copyright © 2004 Chapter Thirty Three From all of the above1 we understand the matter of a single Hitbonenut-contemplation of the many particulars which come together as one general [overarching principle] that includes them all. This is similar to [the matter of] “Whatever HaShem desires He has done in the heavens and the earth etc”.2 The root of this “desire of HaShem” is rooted in the first source (which is called Yachid – Singular etc). This is the aspect of the essential Heyulie desire for kindness in the Essence of the Infinite Light (Atzmoot Ohr Ein Sof) which is [an] absolutely simple [singularity]. This [desire for kindness] is similar to the essentially good and kind nature embedded in the essence of the soul (as explained above in chapter ten). Once it arose in G-d’s will and desire to bestow goodness in a particular way from this general heyulie light,3 [this desire] descended with a great chaining down. [Nonetheless], all [this was] still within Himself [and was still] in the aspect of Infinity (Ein Sof), until this desire reached the aspects of Netzach and Hod of the externality of the vessel of the “Heart”. In other words, [it reached] the external emotions (Midot) of Malchut of the Infinite (Ain Sof), even though as it is there, [in Malchut of Ein Sof] it completely transcends the aspect of limitations of lights within vessels. Rather, it all is literally in an aspect of Infinity (Ein Sof), as “He estimated it within Himself”.4 Afterwards, there was a Tzimtzum [withdrawal] and it descended by means of the aspect of the Line (Kav) within the ten sefirot of Circles (Igullim) etc, until the aspect of Keter of Adam Kadmon.5 [Now, Keter of Adam Kadmon] is the source of the concealed desire (Ratzon HaNe’elam) which becomes revealed as the “desire for the desire” within Keter of Atik Yomin 1 This refers to all the preceding chapters (at least from ten through thirty two).
    [Show full text]
  • The Contemporary Jewish Legal Treatment of Depressive Disorders in Conflict with Halakha
    t HaRofei LeShvurei Leiv: The Contemporary Jewish Legal Treatment of Depressive Disorders in Conflict with Halakha Senior Honors Thesis Presented to The Faculty of the School of Arts and Sciences Brandeis University Undergraduate Program in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies Prof. Reuven Kimelman, Advisor Prof. Zvi Zohar, Advisor In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts by Ezra Cohen December 2018 Accepted with Highest Honors Copyright by Ezra Cohen Committee Members Name: Prof. Reuven Kimelman Signature: ______________________ Name: Prof. Lynn Kaye Signature: ______________________ Name: Prof. Zvi Zohar Signature: ______________________ Table of Contents A Brief Word & Acknowledgments……………………………………………………………... iii Chapter I: Setting the Stage………………………………………………………………………. 1 a. Why This Thesis is Important Right Now………………………………………... 1 b. Defining Key Terms……………………………………………………………… 4 i. Defining Depression……………………………………………………… 5 ii. Defining Halakha…………………………………………………………. 9 c. A Short History of Depression in Halakhic Literature …………………………. 12 Chapter II: The Contemporary Legal Treatment of Depressive Disorders in Conflict with Halakha…………………………………………………………………………………………. 19 d. Depression & Music Therapy…………………………………………………… 19 e. Depression & Shabbat/Holidays………………………………………………… 28 f. Depression & Abortion…………………………………………………………. 38 g. Depression & Contraception……………………………………………………. 47 h. Depression & Romantic Relationships…………………………………………. 56 i. Depression & Prayer……………………………………………………………. 70 j. Depression &
    [Show full text]
  • Teaching Jewish-Christian Relations in the University Classroom
    DOCUMENT RESUME ED 307 180 SO 019 860 AUTHOR Shermis, Michael, EC. TITLE Teaching Jewish-Christian Relations in the University Classroom. PUB DATE 88 NOTE 127p. 7UB TYPE Collected Works - Serials (022) JOURNAL CIT Shofar; v6 n4 Sum 1988 EDRS PRICE MF01/PC06 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Annotated Bibliographies; Anti Semitism; Biblical Literature; Biographies; *Christianity; *Cultural Exchange; *Cultural Interrelationships; Educational Resources; Higher Education; *Judaism IDENTIFIERS Israel; Jewish Culture; *Jewish Studies; WiesP1 (Eli) ABSTRACT This special issue on "Teaching Jewish-Christian Relations in the University Classroom" is meaAt to be a resource for those involved in Jewish studies and who teach about Jewish-Christian relations. It offers an introduction to the topics of the Jewish-Christian encounter, Israel, anti-Semitism, Christian Scriptures, the works of Elie Wiesel, and available educational resources, all in light of the Jewish-Christian dialogue in institutions of higher learning. Carl Evans presents a syllabus for a course in which students are required to converse with local clergy in order to explain the Jewish-Christian dialogue at the grass-roots level. This technique helps students develop mature ways of thinking on a personal, social, and religious level. Robert Everett and Bruce Bramlett discuss Israel's problematic existence, raising numerous points that can lead to effective classroom discussions. Alan Davies describes his, course on anti-Semitism and presents several practical suggestions and instrumental techniques. John Roth offers a short biography of Elie Wiesel's J.ife, his writings, and his paradoxes. Norman Beck provides a model of how a Christian teaches the Christian Scriptures, offering guidelines that are highly supportive of and sympathetic to the Jewish-Christian dialogue.
    [Show full text]
  • Jewish Mysticism, Ritual Murder, and the Trial of Mendel Beilis
    Swarthmore College Works History Faculty Works History 2015 Connecting The Dots: Jewish Mysticism, Ritual Murder, And The Trial Of Mendel Beilis Robert Weinberg Swarthmore College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://works.swarthmore.edu/fac-history Part of the History Commons Let us know how access to these works benefits ouy Recommended Citation Robert Weinberg. (2015). "Connecting The Dots: Jewish Mysticism, Ritual Murder, And The Trial Of Mendel Beilis". Word And Image In Russian History: Essays In Honor Of Gary Marker. 238-252. https://works.swarthmore.edu/fac-history/464 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License This work is brought to you for free by Swarthmore College Libraries' Works. It has been accepted for inclusion in History Faculty Works by an authorized administrator of Works. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Connecting the Dots: Jewish Mysticism, Ritual Murder, and the Trial of Mendel Beilis Robert Weinberg (Swarthmore College) he prosecution of Mendel Beilis for the murder of thirteen-year-old TAndrei Iushchinskii in Kiev a century ago is perhaps the most publi- cized instance of blood libel since the torture and execution of Jews accused of ritually murdering the infant Simon of Trent in 1475. By the time of the trial in the fall of 1913, the Beilis case had become an inter- national cause célèbre. Like the trials of Alfred Dreyfus in the 1890s and the outcry that accompanied the Damascus Affair in the 1840s, the arrest, incarceration, and trial of Beilis aroused public criticism of Russia’s treatment of Jews and inspired opponents of the autocracy at home and abroad to launch a campaign to condemn the trial.
    [Show full text]
  • Interpreting Diagrams from the Sefer Yetsirah and Its Commentaries 1
    NOTES 1 Word and Image in Medieval Kabbalah: Interpreting Diagrams from the Sefer Yetsirah and Its Commentaries 1. The most notorious example of these practices is the popularizing work of Aryeh Kaplan. His critical editions of the SY and the Sefer ha Bahir are some of the most widely read in the field because they provide the texts in Hebrew and English with comprehensive and useful appendices. However, these works are deeply problematic because they dehistoricize the tradi- tion by adding later diagrams to earlier works. For example, in his edition of the SY he appends eighteenth-century diagrams to later versions of this tenth-century text. Popularizers of kabbalah such as Michael Berg of the Kabbalah Centre treat the Zohar as a second-century rabbinic tract without acknowledging textual evidence to the contrary. See his introduction to the Centre’s translation of the Zohar: P. S. Berg. The Essential Zohar. New York: Random House, 2002. 2. For a variety of reasons, kabbalistic works were transmitted in manuscript form long after other works, such as the Hebrew Bible, the Talmud, and their commentaries were widely available in print. This is true in large part because kabbalistic treatises were “private” works, transmitted from teacher to student. Kabbalistic manuscripts were also traditionally transmitted in manuscript form because of their provenance. The Maghreb and other parts of North Africa were important centers of later mystical activity, and print technology came quite late to these regions, with manuscript culture persisting well into the nineteenth, and even into the mid- twentieth century in some regions.
    [Show full text]
  • Appendix: the Use of Symbolic Notation in Descriptive Logic
    Appendix: The Use of Symbolic Notation in Descriptive Logic One well-known introductory textbook on normative logic happens to use, as an example, certain propositions from Patristic theology,1 with the implication that Christians would do well to accept the correct- ness of the comparatively little remembered Patripassian heresy. In this case, the point can be adequately stated using the ordinary notation employed in normative predicate logic:2 PATRIPASSIANISM Px. x is God. Qx. x suffered and died on the Cross. a. the Father. b. the Son. 1. ∃∀xyPy() ↔ x = y 2. Pa 3. Pb ∴= 4. ab 5. Qb ∴ 6. Qa In fact, however, Christians in all periods have usually found the idea of the Father’s having suffered and died to be a repugnant one; and the Church of the fourth century was disturbed much less by Patripassianism than by another doctrine, one that can be stated using the same vocabulary: ARIANISM 1. ∃∀xyPy() ↔ x = y 1 Hodges, Logic, pp. 138, 262. 2 Since normative logicians have not achieved a complete standardization of the notation they use, it is probably worth specifying how I intend the symbols employed in the example sequences to be read. They are as follows: ∃x : ‘There exists some x such that ... ’; ∀x : ‘For all x ... ’; PQ↔ : ‘P if and only if Q’ (i.e., P and Q are either both true or both false); xy= : ‘x equals y’; ∴: ‘therefore’; ¬P : ‘not P’ (i.e., P is false); xy≠ : ‘x does not equal y’; PQ∧ : ‘P and Q’. 155 156 Appendix 2. Pa 3. ¬Qa 4.
    [Show full text]